have our challenges. Whether you’re family, partners, or employees, you are not always going to agree. Someone must be the final decision maker. Tat person, more than anyone else, has to understand that without consensus there will be problems and the desired outcome may not be reached. For NG Turf, the final decision maker is Aaron. However, we get along exceptionally well, working together to manage a large operation.
Where will our company be in the future? We discuss this often when trying to make major decisions. We have a belief and a business model that keep us from getting too involved in other facets of the industry. Rather than becoming too diversified, we want to focus on what we do well. Looking down the road 10 or 20 years from now, the decisions we make today need to make sense based on our business model. Te family has a goal to have a business that will function with or without the family.
Jutt and I have two children, 4-year-old Wyatt and Nellie Jane, who is three weeks old.
Mark McWhorter As far back as I can remember, I have always wanted to farm. Before the days of sod, we were row cropping and running a dairy farm. I saw what my dad did at work, and he included me as his helper at a young age. Running a 130 hp tractor at age nine was
fun...it wasn’t work! Working was a given growing up in our house. Dad took me to work on the days I wanted to go and on the days I didn’t. He has pushed us to do well in everything we do, and he has molded us into the people we are today, for which I am grateful.
We started the turf business when I was about twelve. Stacking sod was fun back then. As I got older, I learned more and did more to help the operation. Tere are always new opportunities to make this profession challenging. After being in business just a few years, we started grading and installing turf on athletic fields. Tis later became Sports Turf Company. I still remember being on a sports turf job site one day right after lunch, when my dad called and said that our farm manager at the time had quit. So at the age of nineteen, I became farm manager at our Whitesburg location. I’ve been back and forth from NG Turf to Sports Turf Company over the years, but for the last ten years it has been mostly all NG Turf. We have continued to grow as a company and have added farms over north and middle Georgia. I have relocated twice in that time period so that I could help improve the production management and facilities at our satellite locations.
In my current role, I’m mostly managing people. NG Turf has a staff of about 130 employees this time of year. Most people can figure out how to grow grass. Managing people requires keeping them motivated, focused, putting them in a position, and giving them the tools needed to do their job successfully. We have excellent farm managers at all four sites.
Natalie and Jutt Howard with son Wyatt.
Natalie Howard After school, I moved to Whitesburg and began working with Sports Turf Company. As assistant to the Vice President, I handled bookkeeping, payroll and many other administrative duties for about six years. During that time, I was also helping NG Turf with sales, marketing and managing special events. Te last couple of years, I have been managing the NG Turf sales staff and our logistics department. As our family has recently grown, with the addition of our daughter, I have been blessed to spend more time at home while still handling the special events for NG Turf.
TPI Turf News September/October 2017
When my sister Merett and I were in our early twenties, I told her that Dad had gotten the company up and going and that over time it would be up to us to contribute and take it to the next level. We have wanted to be the generation that continued building something better. At this point of my life, I believe that all of us in the family have made our contributions to the company.
I think almost every industry is affected by technology. Te turf industry is not exempt. Over the years we have used technology to make us better and more efficient, and have implemented a farm field management software system. We currently use a VOIP telephone system to link all our offices into a virtual office together. We have our own internet-based, custom-written software to handle our scheduling and invoicing. We have a fleet/equipment
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